News in brief ENVIRONMENT The collapse of sea trout numbers in the British Isles has left scientists baffled as to the cause, with hauls in Scotland at a 50-year low. Last year, catches on the river Spey, the largest river on the Moray Firth system in north-east Scotland, fell by 52 per cent.

By DAVID ROSS HIGHLAND CORRESPONDENT A WILDLIFE expert yesterday applauded Scottish Water for spending GBP3.8m to lay a sewage pipe on the seabed near Inverness to protect dolphins, seals and porpoises.

By Andrea Mullaney Born to Be Wild, BBC4 THERE'S a man up a ladder, halfway up a cliff, using a long stick to grab seabirds so he can put rings on their feet and keep track of them. This is Bob Swann, a naturalist, and I suspect that when he goes to the fair he cleans up on the hook-a-duck stall.